Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 20:10:36 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Editorial: Marvin Chavez
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John W.Black
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Pubdate: 30 Aug 1998
On Friday Marvin Chavez, founder of the Orange County Patient, Doctor, Nurse
Support Group, which has tried to develop a distribution system to get
marijuana to patients who are authorized to use it under Proposition
215, got a new lawyer and a new date to begin his trial on 10 counts of
selling marijuana.
James Silva of Los Angeles, who has defended people who tried to set up
medical marijuana distribution networks in San Diego, San Francisco and
Ventura counties, is Mr. Chavez's new lawyer, permitted to take the case
after the public defender's office declared it had a conflict because it
was defending other medical-marijuana cases.
Mr Chavez will have to raise money to pay Mr. Silva, who told us he will
have to study the case to date to see if he can find a way to bring about a
change in Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel's decision not to allow Prop.
215 to be used as part of the Chavez defense.
Some pre-trial motions are expected and the trial is scheduled to begin
Sept. 28 at 9 a.m.

Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 15:58:40 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: LTE: The Case For Prop. 8
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Pubdate: Sun, 30 Aug 1998
THE CASE FOR PROP. 8
Editor -- Before learning is possible, schools must be cleansed of
weapons, drugs and violence.
I believe that Proposition 8 will free California schools from the
suffocating grip of drugs. Proposition 8 establishes the same
``zero-tolerance'' for the possession of dangerous drugs as it does
for the possession of guns or knives. Guilty students will be
immediately suspended and expelled.
I'm tired of my children having to attend public school with other
kids who use drugs. The time has come to make our public education
facilities safe for the children who want an education. When I look in
my daughter's eyes I can see that she deserves nothing less than a
drug-free school.
PEGGY MOYER
San Jose

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Locked-Up Population (A Letter To The Editor Of 'The Sacramento Bee'
From A Professor Of Sociology And Criminology Adds Some Details
To The Latest Statistics On Americans' Incarceration Rate, Noting That
If The Current 7.9 Percent Annual Rate Of Growth In The Prison Population
Continues, Everyone In California Will Be Either Locked Up Or On Parole
Or Probation By 2051)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 22:32:25 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: PUB LTE: Locked-Up Population
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Contact: opinion@sacbee.com
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Pubdate: Aug. 30, 1998
Letters to the editor
LOCKED-UP POPULATION
Re "Fewer crimes, more inmates," Aug. 3: To the 1,244,554 prisoners in
America in 1997, add the jail population of approximately 550,000-plus,
roughly 100,000 locked-up juveniles and another 50,000 miscellaneous (e.g.,
institutionalized mental patients). The total confined population comes to
nearly 2 million. This is a rate of nearly 700 per 100,000 residents, not
445. It is 10 times higher than the rates in most other advanced countries.
We also have nearly 3 million probationers and parolees. Thus, nearly 5
million Americans are under the jurisdiction of the criminal courts.
In California, the total number of people locked in jails, juvenile halls
and mental facilities is about 246,000. If one includes probationers and
parolees, the number goes up to 630,000.
Everyone agrees that our prison population cannot continue to grow at the
present annual rate of 7.9 percent. If it did, the entire state population
would be either locked up or on parole/probation by 2051.
--Tom Kando, Sacramento Professor of Sociology and Criminology
California State University, Sacramento

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